Monday, 26 February 2018

Labour to join Tories on Brexit rocks

It has been a long time coming, but finally the slithery Keir Starmer has had an impact on the UK Labour party, he has it seems, from weekend reports in the media, developed Brexit policy of sorts.

Now, Jeremy Corbyn has been doing a lot of work recently - listen to him speak, his voice is down a few octave's and he speaks in a slower more measured grandfatherly tone. Actual work has been done on this which just goes to show how serious he is, as everyone knows Corbyn hates actually doing stuff.

So in his new tones, Corbyn us apparently going to solemnly say that the UK should remain in a customs union with the EU - really it will mean THE customs union. This means open borders and no free trade deals - i.e. the bits of Brexit that were voted for.

So now we will find out in the next few weeks how riven Labour are as well as the Tories, all the pressure has been on Prime Minister May to figure out a Tory compromise, but Labour have cleverly ignored this since 2016. But now they will have a Brexit in Name Only policy.

I don't doubt this will be very popular in their metropolitan bases - perfect for the upcoming local elections. But in the Labour heartlands, who voted leave overwhelmingly this is a big risk. electorally there are not enough City seats to make up for the loss of the shires, which is why this has not been done before. However, now Labour are the party of the metropolitan elite and are prepared to say it.

It will make interesting viewing to see how this goes down in the Country, not on the Telly of course, where it will be wall to wall worship of the new Jesus making this announcement.

14 comments:

Being in 'a' customs union doesn't mean free movement of people though does it? Turkey is in a customs union with the EU and there's definitely no free movement there.

However if Labour have just agreed they want the UK to continue to have free movement of people from the EU, then they've just saved the Tory party, because the main reason for Labours success last time was that the 4m UKIP voters in 2015 plumped mainly for Labour, not Tories. If the one thing those voters were adamant about, immigration from the EU, is now being said would continue under Labour, they'll move back to UKIP, or the Tories, or not vote at all. Any of which is good for the Tories.

If Mrs May can get Labour to confirm they're now in favour of free movement, she's home free.

There is no "free movement". An EU citizen can only come here if they are economically active - and paying tax. Or if they are self-sufficient and paying tax.

Stop this so called "free movement" and the dribblers and bed wetters that voted for the end will have to pay more tax to compensate. The reason why the current crop of young can't make up for the difference, is that the self same dribblers have removed free education and made house prices unaffordable.

Anon - in practice, there is no enforcement, so there is free movement of economically inactive people. Even economically active free-movers represent additional competition for jobs, housing and public services.

Of course it could be argued that the Home Office should have done something about the former, and provided more funding to ensure that the impact of the latter was minimised, but for various reasons that didn't/couldn't happen.

Why would you conflate Leavers with removal of free eduacation (Blair/Brown) and blowing a housing bubble (Blair/Brown)?

It's clever triangulation, painting Labour as wanting a softer Brexit. It might be cherry-picking but it's unlikely to get slapped down by Brussels because it's not a policy on their table (yet) and crucially it splits the Conservative MPs too. Labour aren't all about splurging billions in ideological pursuits and pouring tea with paramilitaries these days, they're getting better at electoral calculus.

@Anon: it doesn't matter if they're working, they don't pay enough tax relative to what they take in State welfare and services.

How much tax does a migrant earning the minimum wage pay? Less than £2k per year in income tax and NI. How much does it cost to pay them tax credits and child allowance? How much does it cost per child in school? How much does it cost the NHS for a birth? A lot more than £2k per year, thats for sure.

There's a net loss to the public purse for nearly every migrant who comes here, its why the country is in such a state.

This is simply an opportunistic move, that destroys finally the notion that Corbyn has always been a steadfast upholder of the same principles albeit wrong ones for all his parliamentary career, as well as being economically illiterate. It should destroy him.

An EU citizen can only come here if they are economically active - and paying tax.

Or if they are self-sufficient and paying tax.

They are not the same thing.

You can work and pay a quid in tax. You aren't self sufficient, you are getting a massive subsidy from others. Average state spend is 12K a year, and remember, there's distribution which means the poor cost even more.

Politicians are solely concerned with infighting within their own party, with sporadic attacks at the opposition.

Rarely, they have to think about voters. They never think about the country they are supposed to govern.

Given that set of parameters, we see why Scots under Labour were treated with patronising disdain and why the racist (their definition, not mine) SNP were able to raise the patriot flag and obliterate the Labour in Scotland.

Labour are now paying attention to London and treating its previously core vote with similar neglect. But here they are safe. No Labour voter oop North would dream of voting Tory. But with the death of UKIP they have no-one to vote for. So they will, in the future, still put the tick in the red box.

John Miller - am not so sure about that. Once you have left voting for one party your whole political animus has changed - why will you just go back have already made a change? The Tories could easily clean up the shires with a good leader and a pro-brexit stance.

But an election is a long way off, I have not the foggiest what it will be fought over; last time we had a Brexit election that was not about Brexit! next time perhaps we will have the opposite...